Notices by Joan Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social), page 5

8/10 They’re doing what Galileo actually did: they’re making everyone uncomfortable by suggesting, hey, maybe our understanding of reality isn’t complete yet, maybe there’s more to the universe than a rigid little belief system.

Collectively, we're facing a buildup of Cultural Technical Debt—the weight of outdated values, obsolete taboos, and entrenched grudges embedded in society’s operating system. Just as technical debt hinders code efficiency, this cultural baggage blocks societal progress, making it near impossible to adapt to new challenges and opportunities.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/is-cultural-technical-debt-sabotaging-our-survival/

too many people who want to pretend they’re Katness evergreen or whatever the fuck but they won’t tell Uncle Randy to stop being a racist cunt at thanksgiving

I've cut my daily coffee intake from 7 to 1. either things are about to get a whole lot better or so much worse and believe me, you will be the first to know

Stock markets, elections, or policy decisions: sometimes belief and intuition are as important as data. Non-frequentist probability shows why adaptive thinking wins in an uncertain world.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/why-non-frequentist-probabilities-are-gaining-ground/

Fact-checking in 2024 is just watching two people argue with memes and somehow they both lose

Budgeting tip: scream directly into a jar to save your screams for later

[ slaps mosquito ]
mosquito: harder mummy
me: what
mosquito: what

my roommate michael moore keeps leaving these mysterious VHS tapes labeled “For Future Generations” all over the house. i tried watching one, it’s just 45 minutes of him eating a sandwich in total silence. disturbing stuff

Kamala Harris lost not because of some secret scheme but because enough voters made a choice — an uncomfortable, frustrating, and yes, frightening choice. The work isn’t to rewrite this reality as a conspiracy, it’s to face it.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/no-the-election-wasnt-rigged/

the best (???) thing about American politics is you get shit like the “Give Free School Lunches to Kids Act” and that sounds awesome but when it passes you find out it raised the cost of school lunches and somehow made it easier to buy an AR-15

when you see minimalism as inherently ethical and morally righteous you ignore how it becomes a consumer trend in itself

lot of folks in tech want to identify with Galileo boldly challenging religion in the name of science but when it comes to trans rights they are literally on the side of the Catholic Church

1997: by 2023 we'll have flying cars
2024: "are interdimensional child-eating vampires turning the planets gay?" i ask, my brain smoothened to perfection by internet brainworms

every Democrat: (deep breath) “well actually, the real reason we lost was—” falls face-first into an open manhole

developing a new blockchain that runs entirely on the power of positive thinking and marginally illegal securities fraud

This is the dumbest fucking shit I have ever seen. And I've seen the Borderlands movie.

gonna get roasted for this, but if progressives don’t start reaching out to young men, the grifters and outrage merchants will keep winning.

Opinions are like assholes the new York times has a lot of them

Every Transaction Matters: https://world.hey.com/joan.westenberg/every-transaction-matters-cef1e6b7